Happy, Healthy, Mighty Mac

“ Being a first-time mom with type one diabetes was unsettling from the start.
However, with the extensive care and frequent follow ups with my endocrinologist and diabetes educator right from the beginning, I felt a little more powerful and hopeful that I could have a healthy pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby.
I was fit in with Maternal Fetal Medicine alongside my OBGYN, due to this being a high-risk pregnancy.
Each appointment was more reassuring, from monthly growth scans, anatomy scans, fetal echos, to biweekly NSTs. Mackenzie was a healthy (but chunky) baby boy.

Up until my third trimester I had excellent blood sugar control, perfect lab work, and really the only difficult part was the nausea and tiredness (which seemed to consume me my first trimester).

All was well.

I made my first urgent appointment with my OB at the start of my third trimester due to severe epigastric pain, nosebleeds, headaches, and a few elevated blood pressure readings I had taken while at work. I was told not to worry, and that it wasn't high enough to be considered gestational hypertension. These symptoms continued and worsened.

From 28 weeks, I had increased fluctuations in my blood sugars, and grew extremely uncomfortable as the weeks went on. Appointments filled with "borderline" high blood pressures, increased amniotic fluid measurements, and of course with a baby that was growing 4 weeks ahead due to high blood glucose levels they paid close attention to Mac's growth and my blood sugars.
Mac had failed multiple NSTs that landed us in the ultrasound room numerous times to reevaluate, most times he would pass- other times we were sent to L&D to have them reevaluate. I was always sent home, and reassured that Mac was okay.

At 35 weeks, I was finally diagnosed with gestational hypertension, and scheduled for my c-section at 37 weeks.
At 36 weeks, I went in with my mom for Mac's routine NST and growth scan. He failed his NST. During the growth scan, Mac wasn't doing his practice breathing and wasn't moving around. When I had pointed this out, my doctor told me that Mac "was just too big and didn't have much room to move around" and that he was "more than likely sleeping".
She instructed me to go home and rest and that I had 7 days until my c-section and to take it easy. At this point I was still working full time, and she did not instruct me to go on bedrest either.
We thought this was strange, but didn't question her since high-risk pregnancies were her expertise. I also didn't know anything about pregnancies....and knew mine was nothing like "normal pregnancies" I would read about online or that my friends and family had experienced. So, I went home and rested.
By the end of that night, I had noticed I really hadn't felt Mac moving around much that day. I called L&D because I was beginning to get very concerned. Mac was always up "partying" in the evenings and active all night, and by 10pm he was still very calm. They told me to come in.
Within 25 minutes of being triaged, they handed my husband scrubs and prepped me for an emergency c-section. My blood pressure held steady in the 220s/110s and Mac was not responding.
Within 3 hours of checking into L&D, Mackenzie was delivered weighing in at 9lbs 15.6oz and was not breathing. He was immediately intubated and rushed to the NICU.
By this point, my medications had kicked in and I wasn't really processing everything going on around us properly and didn't understand the of the severity of Mac's condition. I had initially been told to expect for him to go to the NICU for blood sugar control since he is a baby of a type one diabetic mother. With that being the main piece of information, I had held onto, I was under the assumption that was his only reason for being rushed to the NICU.
They informed my husband Mac needed to be airlifted to Children's National in DC (the same exact hospital that saved his mother's life nearly two decades prior). The care that he needed could not be provided where I had delivered, and for that specialized care to give him any chance at a quality of life he needed it within a certain time frame. The clock had already began ticking at the time of delivery.
When I came to it (barely), my husband had asked the flight crew to bring Mac to Mother Baby before being flown out, since I had still not seen our baby.
I saw a stretcher being wheeled in, with what I assumed to be our baby tangled in cords and intubated, lying in a plastic incubator box.
I begged my husband and my mom to go be with Mac so he wasn't alone. If anything were to happen to Mac, my only wish for him was to not be left alone. They went to Children's, and I received updates of Mac while in Mother Baby recovering.
It wasn't until I finally got to the NICU (after pleading with my care team to discharge me early) that I could truly understand the extent of Mac's condition. The pictures and updates were terrifying, but nothing was more upsetting than being wheeled into the room where machines were crowded around this tiny little box, where our baby lied.
After 36 hours, I was finally able to touch our baby.
Mac had been rushed to the NICU for respiratory failure, hypoxic-ischemia encephalopathy (HIE), pulmonary hypertension, and atrial flutter. After 4 days, our nurse asked if we wanted to see the color of Mac's eyes during their neurological assessment. After 5 days, Mac began opening his eyes. After 10 long days we were finally able to hold our baby. After 11 days we were finally able to hear him cry. Mac fought tirelessly and defied all odds. After completing the cooling therapy, his MRI revealed a mild traumatic brain injury (with the original expectation was to be a severe TBI). He eventually was taken off of the oscillator/ventilator, all respiratory aid, paralysis medications, sedations, IV nutrients, NG tube feedings, and his PICC line was removed. Mac learned how to breathe on his own, eat on his own, and was finally able to start wearing clothes instead of lying under a heating lamp.
Mac's tiny but mighty body fought long and hard, impressing his care teams daily.
After 30 days we were able to take our baby home.

We are forever indebted and grateful to the incredible care teams at Children's hospital, and the super heroes that worked tirelessly beside our mighty Mac. We would not have made it through such a traumatic start without our family, friends, support systems, and health care workers.
Mac is now approaching 4 months, and has been cleared of pulmonary hypertension and atrial flutter.
He is happy, healthy, & mighty.” -NICU parent, Bryce